Video and Photography

Menu

Tag Archives: Sony Gimbal

Here's a product overview of the new CAME-TV Optimus Gimbal vs the popular CAME-TV Single. In a nutshell, if you were happy with the performance of the SINGLE Gimbal, you'll be blown away by what you can do with the new design and flexibility of the Optimus.

Now both gimbals support the same payload, so don't expect to use heavy camera setups. As I said, it doesn't matter how small your camera body is if you've decided to use lens adapters and large full frame Canon Lenses. That's no longer considered a 'small camera' setup. You'll want to stick with the small camera body + small native lenses to get the best results from these small gimbal systems.

If you're curious what type of camera and lens combinations work, take a look at the CAME-SINGLE product page. They have a very nice list of camera and lens combinations that customers are using and they also link to the customer videos. Not only will you get a sense of what works, but also how the final images look from wide angles to portrait lenses - (click here for examples).

Unlike the SINGLE, the Optimus now folds flat for travel as there are no 'hard stops' built into the motor rotations. Each motor can rotate a full 360 degrees thanks to new slip rings incorporated into each motor housing. With the ability to rotate without limits, the gimbal can be used inverted or upright, and can be rotated at anytime without having to restart the system.

And now that the battery has been relocated to the frame, you will be able to use a variety of different handles or mount the gimbal frame under a jib or Drone. Another bonus of course is that you can swap out the batteries quickly if needed. The CAME-SINGLE with battery built into the handle was a bit more time consuming to change batteries.

Also a difference from the CAME-SINGLE (or other gimbals) is the ability to connect directly with the Flight Control Inputs (located on the side of frame) for Pitch, Roll, and YAW. If you understand SBGC these inputs are used to connect an RC Remote (i.e. Futaba) to control the gimbal from a very long distance or to integrate with the controls of your Drone.

So while the Optimus does carry a higher price tag it includes many accessories over other systems. First, you get two batteries. You also get the Single Handle + the Dual Handles. It will include a tripod mount for balancing, and a fairly decent Hard Case for travel. You'll also get a Wireless Joystick and Magic Arm (for mounting accessories). That's a pretty decent bundle of items if you're trying to compare prices with other systems.

I'm far from being an expert on these things, but I've seen my share of small gimbals, and have even built a few myself from scratch. This newly upgraded version of the Senrigan GP-55 3 Axis Gimbal caught my attention because it's now running the new 32 bit Basecam controller (Alexmos) with Dual IMU Sensors and includes a Bluetooth Module. It also comes with the metal housing kit covering the controller and both IMU sensors. There is certainly quite a bit going on here for the price.

Sure it may be a great little kit to mount with medium sized multicopters, but it could be great for handheld use. If it's not super clear by now, these Basecam driven gimbals are completely self contained systems. Once you add battery power, they can fully operate without being mounted to some type of multicopter. Basically if you can find a way to clamp a couple of handles over the top of these units, you'll have yourself a working 32 Bit Dual IMU 3 Axis Handheld camera gimbal stabilizer.

Of course the only problem with this particular gimbal is that the frame will limit you to work with smaller cameras around the size of a Sony NEX5 or possibly a BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera with either a Lumix 14mm or 20mm pancake lens. Or possibly with one of those new Panasonic 4K compact cameras i've been eyeballing.